I'm trying to look for a new light, I had 2 35w bulbs on my first ever plant. Didn't want to go too expensive to start out with because I usually cannot keep a house plant alive, never mind weed.
So I thought if I can keep one alive I'll invest in better lights.
But it's really hard to figure them out with all there lingo.
One light I'm looking at says it's avg power draw is 100w, with 250w hps replacement.
So does that just mean it's a 100w light?
Other lights will say rated power is 130w or 150w for example.
Please help and sorry if this is a dumb post.
What should I be looking at when buying a light, what numbers?
If I were you, as an inexperienced grower. Id go LED they can be more expensive but can use 1/2 to a 1/4 of the power of an HID ballast and with way less heat output. The HID is definitely an effective way to go but 250w hps isnt much, and actually their efficacy rating deminishes over time and bulb replacement is expensive as well. For a single plant Id recommend at least 400 watt hps. You also have to match the bulb to the ballast. If the ballast says its rated for an x watt bulb thats what you put in. Meaning ballast says 100w you get a 100w bulb to put in it. It should draw 100w maybe slightly more.
With that out of the way investing in a good led can save a lot of money in the long run and pay for themselve quickly. Often in a grow or 2. The rule of thumb I see is good high efficacy led light will use half the power but deliver similar results to an HID counterpart. Most grow LED lights all use samsung LEDs and they are usually the ones designed for photosynthesis specifically. It cam be overwhelming if you dont know what your looking for.
If you dont mind me asking, how big is your grow space and how many plants are you growing at once? A good rule of thumb is 50w to 100w per per sq foot for LED id lean more towards 100w/sq ft because most LED drivers are dimmable now and you can dial in exactly what you need and you have a little more just in case, and double sometimes triple that for HID. The main things you should be concerned about is ppf rating, efficacy rating, total power draw and color temperature. If you cant find an efficacy rating it is the total ppd or par output/the real wattage draw of your light. Most led lights fall in the 2.0-2.75 umol/j rating which is moderate to highly efficient. Color temps should include the complete visible light spectrum and far red and infrared bands. Basically about 350k to 750k. As well as daylight at around 3700k to 5000k Its a little more in depth than that though. You will get the middle of the light spectrum between 350k and 700k from daylight leds as white light is made up of the full band of visible light.
If you have questions I suggest buying a good grow guide too. ED Rosenthals cannabis grow guide is probably the most well known and its constantly being added to and they come out with a new version every few years. It has everything you need to know about growing indoors, outdoors and in a greenhouse. Common grow problems like light positions and nutrient deficiency information with pictures. The ebook is 14.99 on google and its a steal cuz the paperback is 30 to 40.
Happy growing my friend
